Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary

The world inside the door contains the split personalities of Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker. Odetta Holmes is the only surviving child of a black millionaire. She lives in luxury in New York City and devotes herself to the Civil Rights Movement. Her period in time is shortly after the Kennedy assassination. During a subway train accident in 1959, Odetta suffers an injury that cuts off the lower half of her legs and puts her in a wheelchair. This physical break also causes a mental break that creates Odetta's alternative personality, Detta Walker.

Detta Walker represents all the bad and forbidden sides of Odetta's nature. She is heavily invested in her sexuality and is a compulsive shoplifter. It is in the mind of this Detta Walker personality that Eddie and Roland first glimpse her world.